1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an infant care apparatus and, more particularly, to a seat for an infant or baby that can be moved by a drive mechanism.
2. Description of Related Art
Baby swings and bouncy seats have been used to hold, comfort, and entertain infants and babies for many years. Prior art bouncy seats are normally constructed with a wire frame that contains some resistance to deformation that is less than or equal to the weight of the child in the seat. Thus, when the child is placed in the seat, his or her weight causes a slight and temporary deformation in the wire structure that is then counteracted by the wire frame's resistance to deformation. The end result is that the child moves up and down slightly relative to the floor. This motion can be imparted to the seat by a caregiver for the purpose of entertaining or soothing the child.
Baby swings normally function in much the same way as swing sets for older children; however, the baby swing usually has an automated power-assist mechanism that gives the swing a “push” to continue the swinging motion in much the same way a parent will push an older child on a swing set to keep them swinging at a certain height from the ground.
There are some products that have recently entered the market that defy easy inclusion into either the bouncy or swing category. One such product includes a motorized motion that can move the infant laterally, but only has a single degree of motorized freedom and is thus limited in the motion profiles that can be generated. While the seat can be rotated so that the baby is moved back and forth in a different orientation, there remains only one possible motion profile.
A need exists for a motorized infant chair that is capable of simultaneous or independent movement in two dimensions, and can reproduce a large number of motion profiles with those two dimensions to both better mimic the motion of a parent or caregiver.